Matt, I read through your proposed policy and think it is a great first step.
I admit to being a bit naive about this subject. Perhaps it is because I'm part of the majority in this industry. Or perhaps it is because I live and work in the DC area where diversity is interwoven into everything we do. Regardless, seeing that this is an important issue to many of our members, it is something that I've really started thinking about a lot. Something you see a lot around here, and other large metropolitan areas as well I'm sure, is the slogan "See something, say something." It pertains to terrorism in the context of the places you see it here, but it can obviously be adopted outside that. Many times the person being harassed may not feel comfortable speaking up because of how they are already being demeaned. In situations like this, it is of absolute importance that others that bear witness to such cruel acts speak up. Say something immediately that will be non-combative, but will also put a stop to the harassment then and there. They also need to follow up on that by letting their representative leaders know, whoever that may be, so they can take further action. To encourage this, it is important that LOPSA let people know that we care and we stand up for what's right. This can be done through literature, mailings, etc. Anything that will get the word out that this is something that LOPSA will absolutely not tolerate. Thank you for taking the time to put this together. I think you really hit the nail on the head with this and I'm pleased to see somebody start putting the wheels in motion. -Evan On Fri, May 25, 2012 at 2:21 AM, Matt Simmons <[email protected] > wrote: > Hi Everyone, > > I think we had a really informative LOPSA-Live tonight. I've gotten a lot > out of the past two candidate forums, and I've learned a lot about what our > candidates are planning for their terms. I can't wait for the election to > begin! > > One of the things that I have noticed is that the issue of women in > technology. There were several questions tonight, and one kind of stuck > with me. > > cat-xeger asked "Many FOSS-related organizations have adopted harassment > policies for their events. Do we have one, or is one in the works? > (anti-harassment, to be clear)" > > Matt Disney responded that we had an etiquette policy and that we use it > in #LOPSA sometimes. Michael Gehrke referred to the Code of Ethics. > > Here's the etiquette policy: > http://governance.lopsa.org/LOPSA_Policies/Etiquette_Policy > > I won't quote it here, but it's an etiquette policy, basically saying > "respect other people", which is a good idea. After looking around the net, > though, it is definitely _not_ a harassment policy...so I thought about > it like this: If the question comes up as often as it does, there must be a > reason behind it, which means that we need to work to make sure that > everyone feels welcome while at the same time letting everyone know that > NONE of our members should feel harassed. > > Like I said, I'd looked through a few online policies and I picked one > that seemed pretty clear and relatively straightforward. It was the State > of Wisconson's Harassment Policy, and you can find it online here: > http://dwd.wisconsin.gov/er/discrimination_civil_rights/publication_erd_10449_p.htm > > I took this policy and I made a few changes here and there. I added a > preamble, substituted "member" for "employee" a lot, and generally made it > come inline with what our organization stands for and what I thought the > LOPSA policy should say. > > One important bit that I added was the protection of LOPSA members against > non-members. If you are at a LOPSA-sponsored conference, and you're a LOPSA > member, and a non-LOPSA member harasses you, I think our organization > should react just as strongly as it would if you were harassed by a member. > > The document that I've drafted is online here: http://goo.gl/u6AeW - it's > in Google Docs, and I've made it world-readable. > > Please submit any changes that you think should be made here, and we can > discuss it. Once we've got something that we can all (mostly) agree on, I > think we should submit it to the board for "ratification" into policy. > > Please let me know what you think. > > Thanks! > > --Matt > > > -- > LITTLE GIRL: But which cookie will you eat FIRST? > COOKIE MONSTER: Me think you have misconception of cookie-eating process. > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss > This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators > http://lopsa.org/ > >
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